Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Bill Burr: Live At Red Rocks’ On Netflix, A Comedian Working In Rarefied Air

For his fifth Netflix solo stand-up special, Bill Burr sought the high altitude of the outdoor amphitheater on the edge of the Rocky Mountains west of Denver. Perhaps Burr is just the bit of fresh air we need right now? Or did the thin air up there make or break his 80-minute performance?

BILL BURR: LIVE AT RED ROCKS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Burr just curated and hosted a showcase, Bill Burr Presents: Friends Who Kill, as part of the inaugural Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival.
In that special, he unleashed a torrent of jokes about how the pandemic had convinced too many of us to become our own doctors, as well as Kyle Rittenhouse to take the law into his own hands. In less than 10 minutes, he managed to divide even his own fans. Could Burr unite comedy fans with his headlining follow-up? By hitting on main themes of “woke cancel culture” and feminism, how could he?

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Burr broke through as a supporting player on Chappelle’s Show, and is the same age as another fiery red-head who started his comedy career in Boston, but Burr’s comedy now exists on a different plane from either Dave Chappelle or Louis CK. He’s kinda evolved a bit more like Jim Jefferies, if anyone, of his time.
Memorable Jokes: There’s a bit early in the special where Burr concedes that #MeToo and similar movements helped round up and identify all of the creeps, but then crossed a line by going back through history to look for more bad men. He uses John Wayne to make his point.

Why not go after the bad women, too, Burr wonders?
He not only points to one historical figure in particular, but then also turns his attention to contemporary feminism, arguing they’re failing themselves. How so? Burr points to half-empty arenas and stadiums for women’s sports. He then zeroes in on the massive popularity of the Kardashians and the Real Housewives franchise. “That’s the message you sent. We would rather watch that than see a bunch of women come together and try to achieve a common goal. We would rather watch then actually f-ing destroy each other.”
Our Take: If you’ve paid attention to Burr for any length of time over the past 15 years, then you’ve come to learn a few things about him and his comedy.
He loves to dig holes for himself with the crowd for the challenge of doggedly winning them back over with his jokes and sheer determination. He has anger issues, which makes that process more enjoyable for many in the crowd. And he would love to see the global population thinned out, as he elaborates in different colorful ways in each of his stand-up specials. So his closing “take” on abortion isn’t quite so weird in retrospect.
What makes Burr stand out among his peers, however, is not that he plows ahead despite his detractors. Oh no, plenty of Gen-X men in comedy seem to get off on their offensiveness and mine it for additional riches these days. But Burr also acknowledges where he may be wrongheaded, as well as where there’s room for growth and/or compromise, and ultimately progress.
Perhaps he’s simply more skilled as a performer and comic. Perhaps having children has helped him see a better way forward.
When Burr says midway through, “I am a changed person, believe it or not,” there’s at least one guy in the audience who vocally disapproves, and Burr challenges that man to see if perhaps his anger is misplaced, if perhaps that audience member is jealous or afraid of getting left behind by Burr. Either way, the comedian is changing for the better.
A story about taking mushrooms could easily gets laughs at the comedian’s expense (and I saw Burr take the story in those directions, too, in a live show at the Forum in L.A. during the Netflix festival), but for his special, his drug-induced trip takes him back to his childhood, and ultimately finds him yearning to become a better dad to his kids. Sure, growing up in the 1970s with an angry father may make for funny stories in his stand-up and in his animated series, F is for Family. But in the here and now, Burr hopes to break the cycle of anger, and his daughter ultimately helps him break it.
You might almost say she’s enlightening him, awakening him. Even if he’d never cop to being woke.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Burr might tick some of you off, but in the end, he makes everyone realize he’s in on the joke. If only more of his peers could have his self-awareness.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch Bill Burr: Live at Red Rocks on Netflix